Sharif Digital Repository

An aggregate production–distribution (P-D) planning generates an aggregate plan for regular time, overtime, outsourcing, hiring, and firing that takes into account distributing, inventory holding, backordering, and machine capacity for a definite planning horizon. A large number of P-D problems require decisions to be made in the presence of uncertainty. Previous research on this topic mainly utilized either stochastic programming or fuzzy programming to cope with the uncertainty. This may lead into huge challenges for supply chain managers that use non-robust P-D planning in uncertain environments. Moreover, there has been little discussion about robust optimization approach in aggregate... 

Data aggregation is a technique that is used to decrease extra and repetitive data in cluster based routing protocols. As we know SPEED routing algorithm is based on service quality and dose not perform data aggregation. In this article, we try to add an data aggregation technique to the available techniques without interfering with the functions of previous ones. The idea involves virtual configuration of sensors and specification of an individual ID to the created data by the sensors in each region, then data aggregation in relay node is done by this ID, resulting in less energy consumption, lower traffic and repeated data, an increase in network lifetime and better quality of service  

Recently, it was found that ultrasonic wave technology can be used as a method for asphaltene deposits removal from the near wellbore region. However, ultrasounds can affect asphaltene resolution.In this work, asphaltene resolution in several crude oil samples exposed to ultrasonic waves for different time intervals is studied by confocal microscopy. The colloidal structure of flocks is described by analysis of asphaltene particle size distribution to investigate ultrasonic application in solving asphaltene deposition problems.. The results show that for the first 90 minutes of flocculation time, the size of aggregates increases rapidly, and reaction limited aggregation model matches well... 

In spite of the development of different experimental methods and theoretical models devoted to understand and predict the asphaltene behavior in dead/model oils, the asphaltene aggregation phenomena in live oil systems at high pressure-high temperature conditions has been grossly missing in the available literature. In this study, a population balance model with geometric scaling approach is proposed to simulate the asphaltene aggregates growth in time for live oil systems. Appropriate collision kernels are incorporated to describe the aggregation mechanisms taking into account the effect of pressure, temperature and oil characteristics. In modeling of the asphaltene aggregation phenomena... 

A new two-dimensional dynamic model was developed to simulate asphaltene precipitation, aggregation, and deposition at isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. The perturbed-chain statistical associating fluid theory equation of state was used to model the asphaltene precipitation. Also, novel kinetic models were used to account for the aggregation and deposition of asphaltene particles. The effect of the aggregate size on the rate of aggregation and deposition was studied, and it was concluded that the rate of asphaltene deposition increases, while the concentration of nanoaggregates increases in the well column. The tendency of smaller aggregates to deposit on the surface could be... 

This research evaluates the effect of filler type and content on rutting resistance of asphaltic materials by using laboratory experiments. To examine the effect of filler type, two traditional fillers (Silica sandstone powder and Portland cement) and a new recycled lime powder (Eggshell) were considered. To investigate the effect of filler content, three different filler contents were used. Marshall Stability test was performed on full mixes in order to determine the optimum binder content of the mixtures. Then, the static creep test was performed on Fine Aggregate Matrix (FAM) samples. The permanent strain after 10 minutes of recovery (PS-660) was considered as the indicator of potential... 

Femtocell has appeared as a solution to increase both the coverage and the capacity of cellular networks. However, interference problem between the macrocell and the femtocell must be solved before any deployment. Since femtocells are deployed by home users in random locations, decentralised interference management schemes remain worth of investigation. In this study, the author deal with the problem of aggregate interference modelling and static resource allocation in orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based two-tier femtocell networks for both closed and open access femtocells. It is assumed that for macrocell users (MUs), spectrum allocation is accomplished through... 

In this paper we develop a stochastic programming approach to solve a multi-period multi-product multi-site aggregate production planning problem in a green supply chain for a medium-term planning horizon under the assumption of demand uncertainty. The proposed model has the following features: (i) the majority of supply chain cost parameters are considered; (ii) quantity discounts to encourage the producer to order more from the suppliers in one period, instead of splitting the order into periodical small quantities, are considered; (iii) the interrelationship between lead time and transportation cost is considered, as well as that between lead time and greenhouse gas emission level; (iv)... 

Traffic modeling, traffic decomposition, and traffic engineering are some of the applications of traffic characterization that are mainly based on statistical characteristics of the network traffic. Many empirical analyses on Internet traffic traces show that the flow inter-arrival time distribution generally follows the Weibull distribution. As the scale of the network becomes larger, the Weibull distribution degrades to the Poisson distribution and when the flow arrival rate is high, it asymptotically converges to the Normal distribution. The aggregated traffic on high bandwidth links is the result of statistical multiplexing of many traffic sources, and the flow arrival rate on these... 

Despite the numerous experimental studies concerning asphaltene, the extent of reversibility of asphaltene aggregation at reservoir conditions remains still an elusive and controversial issue in the available literature. In this work, a series of depressurization and repressurization experiments were performed on three different live oils for qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the reversibility of asphaltene aggregation under typical pressure and temperature conditions of oil fields. The obtained results reveal that the kinetics and the extent of reversibility of asphaltene aggregation at elevated pressure and temperature are majorly controlled by the characteristics of the reservoir... 

In this paper, we propose an efficient secure data aggregation scheme for the smart grid, which supports both lossy and lossless data aggregation. In order to reduce the computational overhead of the control center, our proposed model includes a number of entities, called gateways, which act as intermediaries between the users and the control center. At the end of each measurement interval, each user generates a report which is encrypted using the Paillier cryptosystem and contains the user's consumption amount during the previous measurement interval as well as his or her prediction of consumption during another interval in the future. After receiving the user's reports, gateways perform... 

A method for clearing energy and reserve market in an aggregated framework is presented in this paper. The objective function of the optimization problem considers offered costs for energy and reserve requirements, the cost of nondelivery energy and the cost of nondelivery reserve. Incorporating these costs in the objective function, the proposed algorithm can obtain a solution in which the market required energy and reserve capacities are assigned to generating units with lower costs and higher response reliability. A new method based on optimal selection of nondelivery compensation alternatives is proposed to determine the mentioned costs. The proposed procedure provides incentives for... 

Precipitation, aggregation, and breakup of asphaltene particles are studied under natural depletion and nitrogen injection processes by means of high pressure filtration and a photographic procedure coupled with image analysis. Filtration results show that nitrogen destabilizes asphaltenes extremely, and the problem is more severe for heavier crude samples. Bimodal histograms of particle size distribution show two agglomeration mechanisms: cluster aggregation dominant around bubble point pressure and diffusion limited far away. The fractal structure of aggregates is also altered by gas injection; it is observed that the flocculent masses grow in size and become more compact and organized... 

The influence of particle size and surface modification on sonocatalytic activity of TiO2 nanoparticles was investigated by measuring the degradation efficiency of methyl orange (MO) as a model pollutant. Crystalline TiO2 nanoparticles with different particles and aggregate size were prepared through solution-phase method with varying synthesis temperatures. Coating with polyvinyl alcohol was performed to enhance colloidal stability of the particles over a wide range of pH values (1.5–7.5). Characterization was carried out using X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, and Fourier-transformed infrared techniques. It was found that... 

In a wireless sensor network, with numerous sensor nodes, a huge volume of data is produced. For the massive data generated by sensor networks to be understood by the machine, semantic web technologies such as ontology need to be applied. On the other hand, since the end users intend to access the high-level physical entities information monitored by the sensor network, the applicability of sensor networks can be enhanced through proposing a strategy to extract the data based on entities instead of extracting the raw sensor data. Hence, in this paper firstly, ontology will be presented for physical entities semantic modelling (PESM). Secondly, an appropriate strategy will be offered to... 

This paper investigated the combined utilization of recycled waste ceramic aggregate (RWCA) and waste carpet fibers (WCFs) in high strength concrete (HSC). Concrete mixes containing different percentages of RWCA including 20%, 40%, 60% (by weight) as partial replacement of natural coarse aggregate (NCA) were prepared. To enhance the tensile and flexural strength of concrete, 1.0% (by volume) WCF was added to the mixes. The slump and density of the fresh concrete were evaluated, both of which demonstrated a decreasing trend with incorporation of RWCA and WCF. With regard to the hardened concrete, replacing 40% of NCA with RWCA led to the optimum mechanical properties and increased the... 

This study concentrated on the formulation of self-flowing and an energy efficient lightweight aggregate foamed concrete (LAFC) to be employed as thermal insulation, thermal mass and structural material. Low density concrete mixtures (for the density values from 800 to 1300 kg/m3) were prepared by changing the volume of lightweight expanded clay aggregate (ECA) from 49.4% to 20.1%. Flowing properties of concrete mixtures were improved with the help of stable foam. Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) was replaced by the 5% and 10% silica fume (SF) to examine the influence of SF on the properties of LAFC. Compressive strength and tensile strength of LAFC mixtures were respectively enhanced from 6.5...